Liz Albert and Shane VanOosterhout are two of thirteen artists selected as a Gallery 263 Small Works Project artist. This project presents artwork in flat files at the gallery and on our website. Visit Albert’s and VanOosterhout’s Small Works Project page→
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi! My name is Liz. I am a lens-based artist and live in Belmont, MA.
Hello, I’m Shane VanOosterhout. I live in Marne, MI.
What kind of art do you make?
L: I work with appropriated vernacular images and combine them (some in sequence with
each other, some with text) to create a fictional narrative.
S: I originally worked as a studio artist and later became a college professor. I taught digital
media courses for 20 years. I love to combine text and images.
What concepts does your art explore?
L: The idea of creating a new narrative from combining image and text from two disparate
sources. Through this process, I am interested in creating entertaining stories, utilizing depth
and humor, that resonate visually and emotionally with the viewer.
S: Beauty, nature, empathy, humor, and our relationship with the external world versus
the internal world.
Can you tell us about the work you have on view in your flat file drawer at the gallery?
L: This is a project that my collaborator, Shane VanOosterhout, and I have been working
on for the past three years. We source found, anonymous Polaroids from eBay and then add
phrases from our HS and college journals as well as from conversations between us. We are
interested in exploring what the people in the pictures might be thinking or feeling within the
context of a fictional narrative.
S: Liz and I have kicked around project ideas for decades, and we finally landed on the perfect
marriage. By the time the images are complete, we’ve done a deep dive into the psychology of
the picture while simultaneously examining our formal and intuitive responses.
Where do you make your work?
L: I do my work with Shane. Between the phone and computer, we send images back and
forth to each other until we finally come to a final version we both feel is right.
S: Liz is brilliant at honeing in on images bursting with potential. She texts me two or three
at a time, and we’re pretty quick to identify the ones that have the right elements. We live in different states, so our process is done over the phone and email while we work on our
computers.
What are your favorite materials to use? Most unusual?
L: My favorite materials to use are appropriated Polaroids from the 60s -early 2000s. Our
other tools are on the computer: Illustrator and Photoshop, along with archival inkjet paper
(Canson Platine Rag).
S: My BFA was in graphic design, so I enjoy beautiful papers and high-quality printing. Fine
artists and designers sometimes have very different ideas about adding text to images, but
that’s not my concern. Acquiring a fabulous analog image, digitizing it, and overlaying text as a
narrative is deeply satisfying.
What historical and contemporary artists inspire you?
L: Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Tania Franco Klein, Diane Arbus, David
Lynch, Mickalene Thomas, Lorna Simpson, John Waters
S: Marcel Duchamp, Rosemarie Trockel, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Sally Mann, Ray
Johnson, Maurizio Nannucci, Bruce Nauman, David Lynch
When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
L: I don’t know if there was a time I consciously decided to be an artist – I just was one in
different ways from as early as I can remember: playing dress up and wanting my picture taken,
creating whole worlds and stories with dolls, drawing what I noticed around me and what I was
thinking about… By the time I got into high school, it became obvious that I would eventually
apply to art school. It wasn’t till my junior year of college, while I was taking a color
photography class, and working with personal family photos, when I really felt I had found my
voice as a photographer.
S: I still don’t know if “artist” is the right title for me because, frankly, my figure drawing
skills are atrocious. But I’ve always been the kind of person who stays creative and seeks
avenues to keep making stuff. Instant Classic has been very successful. I feel super proud of
what Liz and I have accomplished as a creative team, and I’m grateful she gives me her coat-
tails to grab onto!
Is there anything else you would like to share?
L: Thank you for including our work in the Small Works Project! We are very thankful and
appreciate the support!
S: It’s a thrill to be included in the Small Works Project. Thank you for honoring our work, it
means a great deal to us.